PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON LABOUR

INTRODUCTION

The following is a summary of key issues that emerged from the public hearings held on youth and unemployment in South Africa by the Portfolio Committee on labour in 2006. It includes issues that emerged in more than one submission, proposals and resolutions by the Committee.

2. Summary of Key Issues and proposals by the Committee

2.1 Skills development

Problems pertaining to skills development emerged as a critical area in exacerbating unemployment levels. The following issues emerge in the report:

* There needs to be a significant focus on human resource development through .Iearnerships and other initiatives. The fact that learnerships are often not sustainable and that many young people do not find employment after completing them, needs to be urgently addressed. There is a need to conduct an impact assessment of the extent to which learnerships have led to employment over the course of the past five years.

* The Department of labour needs to evaluate the implementation of the National Skills Development Strategy on a regular basis and identify its strengths and weaknesses.

* SETAs are not sufficiently impacting on job creation in the way that they should be. This situation needs to be monitored and addressed.

* SETA's should develop specific targets for learnerships based on the required critical, core and scarce skills. Accepting Recognition of Prior learning (RPl) remairis a significant obstacle. In meeting skills shortages, urgent attention should be given to recognising years of experience, as a form of vocational training that may not be formally recognised. Bridging programmes could be developed to ensure that this is realised. JIPSA is an important initiative and should be located within the context of defining a macro-economic path that would promote skills improvement and meeting skill shortages. It should also be located within a clear industrial strategy that would grow sectors identified under the ASGISA initiative

* There is a need to identify the skills required for key sectors to maintain and expand production. That means identifying both existing bottlenecks and the training outputs required to maintain the sector by replacing existing skills in the coming years. The Department of labour must ensure that qualifications and skills correspond with the needs of the economy.

* There is a need to ensure that employers comply with the skills development strategy and Skills Development Act.

*Government departments, parastatals, non-government organisations and development financial institutions should develop internship programmes to address the lack of skills and practical experience amongst young people.

. * There is a need to increase enrolment in Further Education & Training Colleges.

* There is a need to increase the number of graduates and to ensure greater representativity among professional graduates as black people, especially black women, are not adequately represented in these fields. One suggestion is that JIPSA could develop aprogramme with clear key performance indicators in terms of both representivity and overall numbers. Implementation would then require close work with both employers and universities. It would require, in particular, a massive increase both in bridging programmes for historically disadvantaged individuals.

2.2 Casualisation of employment

· The tendency of employers to casualising and outsource jobs in order to reduce remuneration needs to be monitored and curbed.

. There is a need to engage business, through Business Unity of South Africa, on the issue of casualisation.

· There is a need for the Committee to look at the possibility of contributing to the development of a policy that will regulate casualisation and labour brokers, and initiate legislation that will deal with these.

. There is a need for the Committee to launch a campaign that will be aimed at creating awareness on casualisation.

2.3 Discrimination in the workplace

. There is a need to oversee the protection of vulnerable workers. Discrimination in the workplace based on race and gender, as well as discrimination against people infected and affected by HIV, is still rife.

2.4 Expansion of SMMEs

. There is a great need for entrepreneurship education amongst young people for self-employment. There is also a need to increase the access of young people to finance for setting up SMMEs. Funding for early stage investments is low in South Africa. It is important that start-up initiatives receive seed capital and there is a need to increase business development support.

· There is a need for government to look at the possibility of establishing dedicated youth units that will deal with the disbursement of funds for youth.

· There is a need to ascertain whether all funding agencies have dedicated units that deal specifically with youth funding.

2.5 Youth development

* There is a need to undertake a study to all department to check the effectiveness of youth development programmes, especially those targeted tn rural youth, and consolidate these.

· There is a need to take stock of youth development programmes, especially.

· There is a need to research the skills base of South African youth and align this with the human resource development needs of the country.

2.6 Disability

· There is a need to improve upon the coliection and collation of sufficient and good quality data on persons with disabilities and the challenges that they have to contend with.

· There is a need to monitor and improve upon the willingness of employers to comply with related policies and legislation that pertain to persons with disabilities.

· There is a need to ensure that the public service must reach the 2% target in terms of the numbers of persons with disabilities that it employs by the end of 2005.

· There is a need for awareness campaigns to change prevailing negative perceptions of employers of persons with disabilities. There is a need to ensure that there are sufficient training programmes in place to educate employers in relation to the rights of persons with disabilities.

* There is a need for the composition of recruitment teams to include people who understand issues of disability.

· The community based rehabilitation program for the disabled should be implemented nationally.

2. 7 Youth structures

* There is a need for the Committee to check the synergy between Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the National Youth Commission and the National Youth Council in relation to their operations.

· The National Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and National Youth Development Policy Framework need to be reconstructed with a view to developing a fresh mandate to specifically address the problem of youth unemployment.

· Government must invest in the Youth Service Programme so that it engages young people in providing services to the communities in which they live, while increasing their skills, education and opportunities to generate an income. The Youth Service Programme must include a post-service component that actively supports young people to access economic opportunities.

2.8 labour legislation

· There is a need to evaluate! assess the impact of labour legislation.

· Two different submissions suggested that "youth". be included as a designated group in the Employment Equity Act.

2.9 Co-operation betwee~ different roleplayers

· There is a need for collaboration between business, educational institutions, the DOL and funding institutions to create co-operatives and joint ventures that will assist in job creation for young people.

· There is a need to lobby the private sector to ensure that their social investment programmes are directed at assisting young people.

· The DOL needs to work with local research agencies to promote a culture of using existing knowledge and information to analyse market and social needs.

2.10 Child labour

· The issue of child labour and the need to regulate this emerged in 2 submissions. Within the context of the fact that work pertaining to child labour has been eliminated from the Department of Labour's programme of action during the course of the year due to reprioritisation, this needs to be taken up with the Department.

2.11 Young persons with criminal records

. The proposals raised by the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative need to be explored in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services. The submission raises a number of points in relation to the challenges faced by persons with a criminal record in accessing employment and how the difficulties in this regard act as an incentive to re-offend. The proposal that the criminal records of offences where the offender was a child be expunged except for the most heinous crimes, needs to be considered in the appropriate forums.

3. Resolutions

Having considered the above, the Portfolio Committee on Labour resolves the following:

3.1 There is a need for the Committee to closely monitor the performance of SET As, particularly those that are not performing well. The question as to whether or not there is a need for the continued existence of certain SET As will have to be addressed as part of this process. The monitoring of SETA performance will be incorporated into the programme of the Committee.

3.2 There is a need to collate information on what skills are needed so that skills development strategies are

in sync with areas of economic growth. A study in this regard will need to be pursued with the Department of Labour.

3.3 There is a need to conduct an impact assessment of the work of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund. This will be pursued with the Department of Labour

3.4 The Committee will call for a debate on the issue of whether or not there is a need to amend existing labour legislation. This will include whether or not the Employment Equity Act needs to be amended to include youth as a designated group.

3.5 There is need to conduct an assessment of the disability strategy.

3.6 There is a need to conduct an impact assessment of the effectiveness of learnerships. This needs to be pursued with the Department of Labour.

3.7 The Committee will scrutinize the Department of Labour's report on the casualisation of work with a view to developing legislation in this regard if so required.

3.8 The Committee will invite the public to make submissions on their experiences of discrimination in the workplace.

3.9 The committee will monitor more closely the labour inspection programme to ensure that it is functioning as it should.

3.10 The Department should brief the Committee on the finding and recommendations of the study that was conducted on casualisation

3.11The Committee recommends that the 10% required by Umsobomvu, as a collateral for business start-ups be waivered.

3.12 The Committee should look into the issue of listing of young people in the credit bureau and its impact in them accessing employment and funding.

3.13 The Committee should look into the issue of the exclusion of youth as a designated group on policies such as black economic empowerment, etc.

3.14 The Committee should look into the role of Umsobomvu Youth Fund pertaining to the funding of SMMEs, and its financial challenges if there are any.

3.15 The Committee should investigate whether the education system is responsive to the needs of the economy.